Sunday, March 21, 2010

This is what I voted for

I had the terrible misfortune of walking through the sea of anti-health care protesters at the Capitol yesterday. And I've been thinking about it all weekend. Weighing heavy on my mind has been one sign in particular:

Health care is a privilege, not a right

I can't even get mad over this because it just so completely breaks my heart. It was being held by a white couple in their 20s or 30s. I'm sure everything is a privilege for them, they're in the majority. And I'm a white girl in my 20s, I'm in the majority, too. But what about everybody else?

What about minorities? The poor? They tend to have the hardest time getting coverage. What about kids fresh out of college? Those who lost their job? People with pre-existing conditions? What if those sign-holders lose their job tomorrow, and with it their coverage. Will they still be singing the same tune?

Some people simply can't imagine a time when they will need a little help. And they can't muster the tiniest shred of empathy to care about how it affects others. And it just makes me very sad.

And please, please, if one more person says that the American people don't want this, that they are saying no, I will scream.

Some of us want exactly this! Some of us voted exactly for this! I want this! I voted for this!

You've had your chance for months to speak your mind and you have done that repeatedly, as is your right. But you don't speak for everybody! Your voice may be the loudest right now but you aren't the only voice. And it doesn't make you right.

Finally, to the people who spit and screamed racial and gay slurs at members of Congress, I just don't have anything left to say to you. I feel that you were probably the same people who spit and screamed during the Civil Rights Movement. And it didn't work then.